Saturday, May 10, 2008

Lau Bori ar Lau Chingri

BottleGourd with Bori and BottleGourd with Shrimp...

I have been eating real simple these days, simple food not laced with too many rich spices or garlic and onion seems to have become my favorite. It is still spring here but my food cravings are like those served in my home during the hot summer months.
Summer veggies like Lau(Bengali)/Lauki(Hindi)/Bottle gourd, Parwal, Green mangoes have caught my fancy. These veggies prepared with simple spices and no onion or garlic and a light fish curry is what is staple food, in most Bengali homes in the Gangetic Plains where summer is hot and humid.

Green View from my Kitchen

Is it the green all around that makes me long for these veggies ? Before the days of air conditioned grocery stores and easy availability of exotic veggies, vegetables in the local markets were seasonal in India. So while winter was colored with deep red beet-root, orange carrots and rich red tomatoes, summer was green with deep green striped parwal, mellowed green bottle gourd, vivid rich green of cucumber and smooth green of raw mangoes.

The tender lau or bottle gourd with its soothing green skin soothes the eyes in harsh summer and because of its high water content has a cooling effect and so is one of the preferred veggies in the summer months.
According to ayurveda, the cooked bottlegourd is cooling, diuretic, sedative and anti­bilious(corrects secretion of bile). It gives a feeling of relaxation after eating it. It is rich in essential minerals and fibre.

The bottle gourd was used in several different kinds of dishes in my home ranging from the dal, the lau-ghonto which I think was made with milk and usually white in color, another lau-ghonto with fish head, the lau-bori where the dish was garnished with fried moong dal vadis, the lau-chingri where the shrimp was mixed with the dish to dress up the simple homely dish.

The recipe of Lau Bori and Lau Chingri here is as my Ma made it.

Lau Bori'r Torkari

What You NeedLauki/Bottlegourd ~ 3 cups. Peeled and chopped in small pieces. You need to cut the bottlegourd in really small & thin pieces, large chunks are a NO No. The cut should ideally be thinner than mine.Tomato ~1/2 of a medium finely chopped in small piecesGreen Chilli ~ 3-4 slit through the middle. I use hot Indian Geen ChilliesGinger ~ ½” grated fresh

Jeera/Cumin Powder ~ ½ tspRed Chilli Powder ~ ¼ tsp or according to your spice level. I go with the green hot chillies and do not use any chilli powder.Turmeric Powder ~ about 1/4 tsp

Sugar ~ ¼ tsp or none if you don’t like it sweetSalt ~ to tasteOil

For garnishBori ~ ½ cup of Moong Dal Bori fried and crumbled. If you do not have any Bori, you might skip it. The Bengali Vadis are known as Boris and are small sun dried cones of lentil paste, the shapes are like Hershey's Kisses. Here is a recipe of boris made of Urad Dal. These boris are fried and then added to the dish.

Corriander Leaves ~ a fistful finely chopped

How I Did ItHeat Oil in a Kadhai/Frying Pan.

Fry the Bori till it is a nice warm rich brown. Remove and keep aside

Temper the oil with Bay leaf, Cinnamon Stick and Whole Cumin seed

When the cumin starts sputtering add the finely chopped tomato and green chillies.Sauté till the tomatoes are soft and mushy with no raw smell.

Sauté for 2-3 minutes and cover and cook. Intermittently remove the cover and give it a good stir. You don’t need to add water as bottle gourd releases water on cooking. If the bottlegourd is dried up or not that fresh you may need to add little water while cooking.

When the bottlegourd is cooked add sugar and cook for a minute. The water should have dried up by now and the result would be a dish with no gravy but moist.

Now crumble the fried bori on top

Garnish with fresh coriander leaves

BottleGourd with Shrimp

Lau Chingri aka Bottle Gourd with Shrimp

Everything is same as the Lau-Bori recipe. Except for the Bori you need about ½ cup of shrimp. Wash the shrimp and mix with a little turmeric and salt and let it marinade for 30 minutes. Fry them to a light yellow and remove and keep aside. Cook Bottlegourd exactly as above. Instead of the bori, mix the shrimp with the bottlegourd at the second last step. Sauté for a minute and you are done.

Trivia:Ektara the most ancient form of string instrument found in the Eastern parts of India, is constructed out of a half of a dried gourd shell serving as the sound-box, with a metal string running right through the middle of the shell. The Ektara was used by the Bauls of Bengal for their folk singing

hey sandeepa, nice to hear from you after a long time. we have been married for a little over a year ..we have been together for 8 :)

I love lauki for the simple reason that it's so light and harmless a vegetable.....i love them with luchis or parathas....they neutralize the "heaviness" of luchis. but my husband cant stand it..he cant stand any green-colored vegetable :DD, so we make lau-chingri sparingly ........he sometimes gives in though when i add enough haldi (holud ?? :D) to mask the grren color of lau :)

love the green view from your kitchen..we have almost a similar view from our deck...and as always, yet again my new apt. kitchen does not have a window.....i have been dying to have a kitchen with window...but if wishes were horses....

Sandeepa lau-bori and lau-chingri, both look mouth-watering. I never liked lau as a child, but just love it nowadays. My fav - though is lau-er khoshaa bhaaja! Hmm, I should buy lau on my next trip to the indian store!

Tried your lau chingri recipe today. thanks a bunch for posting it. i didn't think i would ever be trying this but it turned out quite well, even with my reputation as a very unaccomplished cook :) and i would like to report that your recipe tastes almost identical to how they make it in Bangladesh. I also tried the bati charchari recipe but added onions. Very light dish - perhaps will make again in summer. I have been following your blog - which is a delight to read - for some time but only recently started trying the recipes. Again, thanks for taking the time. Hopefully slowing down the network doesn't mean disappearing altogether, cuz that would be a shame. -Samia

Thank you for posting and sharing this recipe; I tried it two nights ago and it turned out really good :) I was born in Bangladesh but unfortunately never picked up on cooking the awesome Bengali dishes. I get cravings for authentic Bengali style dishes every now and then; so it made me so happy and excited to come across your blog. Look forward to visiting your site again soon.

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Predominantly a Bong, who loves being a Mom and loves to cook among other things for the li'l one and the big ones.She loves to write too and you will find her food spiced up with stories. Mainly a collection of Bengali Recipes with other kinds thrown in, in good measure. A Snapshot of Bengali Cuisine